RIYADH, May 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Saudi Arabia's King Fahd pledged on Saturday, May 17, that the kingdom would push through political reforms and expand popular participation, but insisted this was not the result of external pressure.

"I wish to assure you that we will proceed on the path of political and administrative reforms ... and expand the scope of popular participation and open more areas for women employment," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Fahd as telling the Shura (Consultative) Council.

In a key policy address opening the third year of the third legislative term of the appointed council, King Fahd rejected any interference in the oil-rich kingdom's domestic affairs.

"We reject interference in our internal affairs from any side and under any pretext. We are keen on undertaking a self-assessment of our internal affairs with the aim to reform," said the king in the speech distributed to council members.

King Fahd praised the Shura Council's role in bringing reforms, saying that the new government announced in late April did reflect part of the reform efforts, but that more was in the pipeline.

The Saudi king said he had given his approval for the formation of a non-governmental human rights body, adding that a government-run rights body would be subsequently established.

He also promised that "laws and decrees will be revised," and "supervision of government agencies will be strengthened."

But the king warned that reforms can only be fruitful in an "atmosphere of social harmony based on national unity," where there is no room for extremism, urging religious scholars to promote tolerance.

Over 100 Saudi intellectuals submitted in January a petition to Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the kingdom's de facto ruler, calling for wide-ranging political and social reforms.

Prince Abdullah told a group of the signatories in reply that reforms were only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, the Observer newspaper asked leading international experts for their views whether or not the “external pressures” on Saudi Arabia would prove productive.

Dr. Rosemary Hollis, Head of the Middle East Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said a U.S. project to reform the kingdom’s education and politics “will be counterproductive.”

“There is a lobby for change in the Saudi elite and their chances will be undermined if blessed by Washington. Such is the level of anti-Americanism in the Kingdom that there can be no normal relations and commercial interchange without risking more attacks on Westerners,” he said.

Malise Ruthven, author of 'A Fury for God: the Islamist attack on America’, said the U.S. faces an acute dilemma in their dealings with Saudi Arabia.

“The more they pressure their closest Arab ally to cooperate in the war against terrorism and to modernize its outlook - by introducing reforms in the educational system, reducing restrictions on women and getting rid of the ubiquitous religious police - the more the princes who rule the country will be vulnerable to the charge that they are not ruling in accordance with "what God sent down," Ruthven said.

“The best way forward would be for the Saudi rulers to distance themselves as much as possible from the Americans, to discard or at least reduce their princely privileges and to enlist the support of the merchant and professional classes against their Wahhabi and Islamist critics by introducing democratic institutions,” he added.

Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, said Saudi Arabia is currently facing a difficult test, which poses a threat to its stability and the future of the ruling regime.

“Four months ago, one hundred Saudi academics, leading personalities and former ministers presented the government with a petition demanding the formation of an elected parliament and a just legal system, an end to human rights abuses, equality in the workplace, and end to the exploitation of public money and all forms of financial and managerial corruption, and granting women their full rights.

“The Saudi ruling family, however, has been extremely slow in responding to these demands,” he said.

Atwan argued that the Western media avoided criticizing the Saudi government “because of the kingdom's vast oil reserves, and because of a number of large-scale trade agreements, such as the 40-billion-dollar Al Yamamah deal signed by the Saudi and British governments.”

He said this silence lead to the growth of “fundamentalism” in the kingdom and the “emergence of terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda.”